Bhubaneswar/Berhampur, June 6: Odia weightlifters have earned pride for the nation by clinching gold and silver medals at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in which the Indian team started off with 15 medals, including 11 gold.

Four out of the five Odia members in the Indian contingent won medals today at the event at Apia, Samoa. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik congratulated all of them. Puri girl Minati Sethi, who represents the Indian Railways team in national events, grabbed a gold medal in the senior women’s 58-kg segment.

Minati’s effort to lift a total of 175kg (75kg + 100kg) helped her bag the gold. She had bagged three silver medals at the event in 2009. Weightlifters from Berhampur, that has given international champions such as Commonwealth gold medallist Ravi Kumar to the country, also proved their worth at the international event.

While Arun Shanta won a gold medal in the 56-kg Youth Boys category, national champion Tikina Gopal grabbed a gold medal in the senior women’s 53-kg. Achyutananda Sahoo of Kendrapara, too, won a gold medal (junior men 62-kg).

Both Minati and Tikina had bagged three gold medals each in their respective categories at the last National Championships held in December last year as well as the South Asian Weightlifting championship held in Nepal in March this year.

Sports lovers as well as family members and well wishers of the weightlifters in the state have been cheering for their performance ever since the news broke out.

“We are delighted to know that our daughter has earned a gold medal for the country. We are very proud of her and will celebrate it big when she returns to the city,” said Minati’s father Narasingha Sethi, who lives at Sarvodaya Nagar in Puri.

Tikina’s first coach, Purna Chandra Behera, who trained her from 1993 to 1996, said she had always shown potential even as a beginner, and later, excelled in all the events she took part in.

The 16-year-old Arun Shanta, a native of Telari village in Nabrangpur district, is being trained in weightlifting at the Sports Hostel Berhampur by Dharma Rao since the past four years.

Shanta won a gold medal in the All India Youth Weightlifting Championship held in Arunachal Pradesh last year.

“We are thrilled to know that Arun has won a gold medal in the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship. We will give him a grand welcome when he returns to Berhampur on June 12,” said Rao. Subhasmita Mohanty from Cuttack (63-kg youth girls category) and Achyutananda Sahoo (junior men 62-kg) are the other Odia weightlifters taking part in the event.